In common with most mature markets, in Australia there are significantly more subscribers to mobile services than there are people. Australia's mobile market is now highly mature and developed with slow annual subscriber growth rates of below 3% since 2013. Mobile penetration is now well over 100%.

Growth is being driven by population increases as well as a rise in the number of people using two or mobile subscriptions commonly one is for personal use and another for business use.

Very slow growth is predicted over the next five years to 2022 with penetration rates predicted to rise only slightly above projected population increase.

Revenue for MNOs in recent years has been characterised by the continuing take up of services based on LTE technology, and to the rising proportion of mobile data to overall revenue.

For all operators, price competition combined with a focus on managing their mobile businesses as they adapt to new technologies being brought into play, have led to considerable pressure in recent years.

All three Australian MNOs are now investing billions of dollars in their networks annually, with a view to securing new customers and retaining existing ones. Increasingly, consumers are looking to mobile communications for their broadband needs.